ABSTRACT

This chapter provides a circumscribed overview and critique of some of the major tools and approaches which feature in rehabilitative practices. It delves into the technical knowledge and psychosocial tools which practitioners use in the 'doing' of rehabilitation work with service users. One of the questions posed to each practitioner interviewed in this study asked them to explain what makes up their 'professional toolkit', especially in working with people with more than one issue or complex need. Many of the psychosocial tools and interventions they described corresponded with the dominant tools and techniques which feature in the international practice literature. The notion of a professional toolkit encompasses the observation that it is common for practitioners in the two fields to use several or, in some cases, most of the tools and approaches discussed in this chapter, irrespective of the institution, practice framework or model within which they work.